CEDAR CITY - When their new coach greeted them this past winter, Southern Utah University's football players were introduced to a conditioning program featuring the grueling "Fight Gone Bad" workout. The timed, circuit-training exercise became a theme for the Thunderbirds, simulating how they would keep competing in a game and make opponents realize they would not submit easily.

It's their way of trying to overcome an 18-game losing streak, while representing an athletic program that's fighting to create an identity in its home state. Distinguishing itself is not easy for a school that plays football and basketball in two far-flung conferences - collectively spreading from California to Michigan and North Dakota to Louisiana - and is constantly trying to establish its niche in Utah.

Or, more accurately, to explain it.

When he took over the program last year, former Brigham Young coach Roger Reid understood where SUU basketball ranked in Utahns' consciousness. "When you coach at BYU, you know the pecking order," he said. "I'm not naive here."

Even so, when he started recruiting in Utah, "I was shocked," Reid said. "A lot of kids didn't realize this was a Division I basketball program."

His ability to raise the program's profile is among the reasons Reid was hired, during a 2 1/2 -year stretch when the school also has landed a new president (Michael Benson), athletic director (Ken Beazer) and football coach (Ed Lamb).

Dave Holmes, a local builder and former president of the Thunderbird Athletic Club, figures half of Cedar City's 25,000-plus residents have new enthusiasm regarding SUU athletics and the other half are in a "wait-and-see" stage. Holmes is convinced good things will happen in the flagship sports, amid the achievements of other programs in SUU's 17-sport offerings. Whatever belief exists is largely driven by Benson's stance that athletic success is important on any campus.

"Expectations have changed, they really have," said Beazer, hired in December 2005 by a former president. "Next year at this time, you may be talking to another athletic director. . . . Expectations have to change for me, for the coaches, for the administration. If you want what other institutions have, there's a price to be paid - that's expectations, that's effort, that's commitment on all fronts."

What SUU wants is Big Sky Conference membership, creating a better geographical fit and a more identifiable connection for Utahns. That desire is qualified by expressions of loyalty to the Summit League, SUU's home for basketball and most other sports for 15 years, and the recently created Great West Football Conference.

Benson will say that top-level Big Sky schools are SUU's athletic model. "We're trying our level best to be ready, should that invitation ever come," he added. "We're better off now than we were five years ago when we applied."

Northern Colorado was chosen as the conference's ninth school. SUU's response, without any promises from the Ogden-based Big Sky, has been to improve its academic criteria, increase athletic budgets and try to field more competitive teams. Under Beazer, SUU's football scholarships have gone from 40 to 63, the maximum for schools in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision - which includes the Big Sky.

That investment enables the Thunderbirds to make money by scheduling football opponents such as Air Force for this season's opener and Utah State and San Diego State in 2009, because a victory over SUU now counts toward bowl eligibility. Wisconsin even inquired about playing the Thunderbirdsc, but Beazer resisted.

While SUU may not be ready to tackle the Big Ten, Lamb believes everything is in place for immediate improvement from the depths of a 4-28 record over three seasons. "This program's ready to go," he said. "I don't feel the pressure to build it, I feel the pressure to achieve what we should achieve. So many resources are being poured into the program."

Compared with previous coaches, Lamb said, "I've been given the keys to a car that's just been tuned up, and everybody else has been just pushing it around."

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com